Russia Mulls Restoring Old Time

A new bill was introduced in parliament Friday calling for Russia to return to changing its clocks biannually, two years after the government –in an unpopular move — abolished the practice.

“The purpose of this bill is to return to the pre-existing system of calculating time,” said State Duma Deputy Vladimir Gutenev, who introduced the bill.

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The decision to stop changing the clocks dates back to 2011, when then-President Dmitry Medvedev – in his final year in office – signed a decree ending the practice saying it “disrupts the human biorhythm,” and confuses milk cows.

The difference means that Russia now remains on permanent summer or daylight saving time, resulting in the time difference between it and other countries growing longer in winter. For example, London is three hours behind Moscow in the summer and four hours behind in the winter.

Since the change, the sun doesn’t rise in winter until sometimes later than 10 a.m., meaning children must go to school and adults to work in the dark. While it does mean the sun stays up a bit later in the afternoon, most employees who work into the early evening get little exposure to the sun during winter months.

The change has also wreaked havoc on the timetables of those whose work requires regular contact with other countries. Traders in London who watch Russian markets now have to start at 6 a.m. for half the year to be awake for when the Moscow Exchange opens for trading at 10 a.m. Moscow time. The real result is that volumes on the Moscow Exchange dip significantly during the first hour of trading in winter.

Alternatively, Russians who have investments in London have to remain at work an hour later in Moscow to wait for the London Stock Exchange to close. For New York, the time difference grows to a very long nine hours in winter.

Perhaps most annoyingly, digital clocks on many smartphones and computers continue to change automatically in Russia, requiring users to have to manually change them back. Blackberry users, for example, must set their phones to Armenian time just to get things right.

After the first year, polls showed that less than a third of Russian liked the result.

It’s not the first time a bill has been introduced to undo Mr. Medvedev’s unpopular decree. But in the other cases, the bill was offered by members of smaller, opposition parties and failed. This time it is coming from a member of the ruling party, United Russia, which Mr. Medvedev – who is now prime minister – leads, suggesting it may have a more successful fate.

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